I read Bill Fach's article earlier this week and have been thoroughly reinspired to quit whining about not being able to travel to the SW to get those stunning monument vistas.
Bill, thanks loads for sharing your thoughts with us. I often forget how fortunate I am to live where I do. I have two creeks, an old mill pond where bald eagles hang out, and a river, all within walking distance of my house. Not to mention countless creeks and fields of wild flowers within quik driving distance; and the Oregon coast is only an hour away. Yet I still piss and moan about not being able to travel to the National Parks often enough.
Well I'm going to try to burn a little less petrol and spend more photo weekends closer to home.
But I'm still going to Mt Rainier NP in a couple weeks!
Keep telling yourself that Curtis, while I keep shooting the amazing vistas of the Colorado Plateau!
I completely agree with you. There are a couple of places that are fairly close to home that I really enjoy shooting, that are small SWAs or Open Spaces. Of course, it's also nice that Rocky Mountain NP is an hour or so away!
If I was a landscape photographer, living in Ely would drive me crazy. Not a lot of vistas here, only forest, unless you're out on a lake or are able to make your way to the top of an escarpment (not many around here).
But I love the close-up and the medium view, so I'm living right in the middle of the place I'd be traveling to if I lived somewhere else.
That being said, there certainly are unexplored possibilities for compelling nature photography in almost all of our back yards if we choose to shrug off our jaundiced view and look with fresh eyes.
Well, Curtis, you just have to come out this way so we can shoot someplace that isn't green with a lot of waterfalls!
I think it's true, most of us see the grass as being greener somewhere else. The argument could be made, though, that shooting icons are easier than shooting other places, because one, it's been done so many times that we can invision the shot, and two, generally an icon has a single stunning subject. I love shooting in Arches and Canyonlands, but I find often I get better shots when I am not concentrating on the icons, but rather the subtleties.
I love finding small treasures that are close to home. First, it gives me a sense of ownership. "Look at this wonderful place I have found that no one else knows about!" Second, it's close to home, so I don't have to get up as early to catch sunrise!!
Posted by David Weber on July 12, 2007 at 10:52 AM
That's why I'm thankful to live in Michigan! Aside from "mountian's grandure" there's much to photograph and enjoy here. It gets better, IMO, the further north you go. We have a youth group that's hiking at Isle Royale this week and I wish I was there with them!
I live in the foothills SW of Denver and have to put up with a lot because of it. I was watching the Colubine blooming in my front yard, but the Elk and Deer eat them before I could photograph them! The turkeys make too much noise and I have to drive almost an hour to get to the top of a 14,000 foot mountain. It's tough having to live in Colorado! Mountains, lakes, rivers, animals, flowers, etc. everywhere and nothing to photograph.
I'd say 99% of the images I record are within my own backyard or a very short walk away. I do have a large , wonderful backyard mind you, but I also live in an area that is really beautiful; an unspoiled river valley. However I'm quite satisfied staying close to home. I think if you look around with an open mind, you''ll see amazing things, right before you.
I know it sounds corny but probably the most important lesson I've learned is - everything (really) is beautiful , in it's own way. Just my thoughts, Tim
I used to live at 10,000 feet, above a little town called Victor, Colo. I worked for a gold mine there in the Cripple Creek mining district. It was in the late '80s, long before I was serious about photography. Had Pike's Peak out my kitchen window and the Sangre de Cristo range out my front window. Elk bugled 200 yards from my house, and after every rain shower in summer a rainbow would form, pointing to the pot of gold right in the middle of Victor. Abandoned mines and creosote-stained shacks and mine frames were all over the place in Victor, Cripple Creek and Goldfield. Beautiful mountain parklands bursting with wildflowers were only a short drive from my home, and Royal Gorge was an easy drive, as well, if standing above most of the rest of my immediate world wasn't good enough for me.
Heck, if I'd had a camera and a brain in my head, it would have been enough to turn me into one of those landscape photographers NPN is so filthy with.
As much as I love where I live, having moved here specifically because it's God's country, there are many, many days I recall the play of light over the plateau country between my front porch and the Sangre de Cristos and wish I was still living in Victor and had a large format camera. Seems like we'll always want what we don't have at the moment. Sigh.
Posted by Tom Webster on July 13, 2007 at 12:01 AM
I perform 90% of my avian photography only 25 miles from my door step. I can be "in the field" everyday of the week and only use one tank of gas for the whole week. :)
Now Wait a minute Steve, God's country is the Columbia River Gorge!
I grew up on a hill across the river from Hood River, Oregon. Our house sat about 500 feet or so above the Columbia River, right at the east end of the gorge (geographically). The picture window in the front room was pointed directly at Mt Hood. I could sit out on the deck, look down river, and watch the cloud cover break up as it dumped rain on Cascade Locks.
I had Gifford Pinchot National Forest within a few minutes drive.
I was just a kid, and the shame of it all is that I was too busy partying to appreciate the beauty around me. Oh well, I guess that's why someone came up with the phrase "live and learn" eh...
Curtis, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but everyone already knows Colorado is God's Country. There's even a Dave Kirby song, COLORADO, which proves it. It unequivocally states, "If God doesn't live in Colorado, I'll bet that's where he spends most of his time."
I grew up in Northern New Jersey and there was an incredible amount of natural beauty there as well. It makes you think nature's beauty is always around us if we only have the eyes to see it.
Cripple Creek and Victor are just a little bit to the south west of me and still are great little towns although gambling has brought changes.
Discussion
12 repliesBill, thanks loads for sharing your thoughts with us. I often forget how fortunate I am to live where I do. I have two creeks, an old mill pond where bald eagles hang out, and a river, all within walking distance of my house. Not to mention countless creeks and fields of wild flowers within quik driving distance; and the Oregon coast is only an hour away. Yet I still piss and moan about not being able to travel to the National Parks often enough.
Well I'm going to try to burn a little less petrol and spend more photo weekends closer to home.
But I'm still going to Mt Rainier NP in a couple weeks!
I completely agree with you. There are a couple of places that are fairly close to home that I really enjoy shooting, that are small SWAs or Open Spaces. Of course, it's also nice that Rocky Mountain NP is an hour or so away!
But I love the close-up and the medium view, so I'm living right in the middle of the place I'd be traveling to if I lived somewhere else.
That being said, there certainly are unexplored possibilities for compelling nature photography in almost all of our back yards if we choose to shrug off our jaundiced view and look with fresh eyes.
I think it's true, most of us see the grass as being greener somewhere else. The argument could be made, though, that shooting icons are easier than shooting other places, because one, it's been done so many times that we can invision the shot, and two, generally an icon has a single stunning subject. I love shooting in Arches and Canyonlands, but I find often I get better shots when I am not concentrating on the icons, but rather the subtleties.
I love finding small treasures that are close to home. First, it gives me a sense of ownership. "Look at this wonderful place I have found that no one else knows about!" Second, it's close to home, so I don't have to get up as early to catch sunrise!!
I know it sounds corny but probably the most important lesson I've learned is - everything (really) is beautiful , in it's own way. Just my thoughts, Tim
I used to live at 10,000 feet, above a little town called Victor, Colo. I worked for a gold mine there in the Cripple Creek mining district. It was in the late '80s, long before I was serious about photography. Had Pike's Peak out my kitchen window and the Sangre de Cristo range out my front window. Elk bugled 200 yards from my house, and after every rain shower in summer a rainbow would form, pointing to the pot of gold right in the middle of Victor. Abandoned mines and creosote-stained shacks and mine frames were all over the place in Victor, Cripple Creek and Goldfield. Beautiful mountain parklands bursting with wildflowers were only a short drive from my home, and Royal Gorge was an easy drive, as well, if standing above most of the rest of my immediate world wasn't good enough for me.
Heck, if I'd had a camera and a brain in my head, it would have been enough to turn me into one of those landscape photographers NPN is so filthy with.
As much as I love where I live, having moved here specifically because it's God's country, there are many, many days I recall the play of light over the plateau country between my front porch and the Sangre de Cristos and wish I was still living in Victor and had a large format camera. Seems like we'll always want what we don't have at the moment. Sigh.
I grew up on a hill across the river from Hood River, Oregon. Our house sat about 500 feet or so above the Columbia River, right at the east end of the gorge (geographically). The picture window in the front room was pointed directly at Mt Hood. I could sit out on the deck, look down river, and watch the cloud cover break up as it dumped rain on Cascade Locks.
I had Gifford Pinchot National Forest within a few minutes drive.
I was just a kid, and the shame of it all is that I was too busy partying to appreciate the beauty around me. Oh well, I guess that's why someone came up with the phrase "live and learn" eh...
I grew up in Northern New Jersey and there was an incredible amount of natural beauty there as well. It makes you think nature's beauty is always around us if we only have the eyes to see it.
Cripple Creek and Victor are just a little bit to the south west of me and still are great little towns although gambling has brought changes.